Firefox SearchWP, Adds Text Highlighting To The Search Bar

I have to admit that I'm not using Firefox's built-in search bar to search on the Internet. I use the space for other interface elements and search directly on sites that offer search.

It is a trade-off, other users make use of the search bar in the browser. One of the things that is missing there however is a word highlighting option to find the words or phrases entered in the search form on the search results' page.

While you could use the Ctrl-f combination for that, it is not the most comfortable thing to do.

It works automatically once it has been installed in the browser. All search terms that you enter into the search bar are automatically converted to buttons. These buttons act as word highlighters for that particular page.

A click on one of the buttons highlights the next instance of that word on the page. This interestingly enough works on other open web pages in the browser as well. Just enter a word or words into the search form without searching. The add-on converts the words automatically into buttons which can then be used on all pages to highlight the text there.

Firefox users who have the add-on installed in their version of the browser can cycle through all instances of the word on the active page easily this way. They can also search backwards on the page by holding down the Shift key while clicking. Phrases can be added by using quotation marks around the phrase.

Many users have used the extension as a replacement for a similar feature of Google's Toolbar which has been discontinued a while ago.

The extension ships with three options. It is first possible to enable or disable word highlighting with or without case matching. The other two options let users select the minimum number of characters a search word needs to have to be converted into a button, and the option to group all word tokens into a single menu at the end of the search form.

SearchWP is a handy add-on for Firefox users who want their search terms highlighted in the search results.It needs to be noted that it only highlights the first hit on the page and that you can cycle through individual hits on the website you are on only.

The add-on can be downloaded from the official Firefox add-on repository over at the Mozilla website.

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.